Meaningful answers to the Big Questions, or anything else for that matter, require truth. But truth is like a fighting word. Any claim to it is thought pretentious and met with suspicion, if not derision.

This has led intelligentsia to claim that truth is subjective and phenomenological (dependent upon individual experience): "Your reality is not my reality." There are post-modern/post-structural anti-realists who argue that there is no underlying one truth, but that one’s reality is socially constructed and depends upon focus, history, desire, culture, and the like. There are also schools of thought that say reality is relative, a product of mental ideas (Berkeleyan idealism), a collection of perceptions and memories (Russell's hypothesis), or just a cultural artifact (social constructionism).

Tolerance and political correctness also make truth wishy-washy. You've heard it, how everyone has a "right to their opinion" and that it is polite to "agree to disagree."

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​Even with the information explosion of the past 400 years, no clear verifiable truth to the fundamental questions of existence has emerged. Given the lack of consensus on truth, it's fashionable to assert that it's truth that there is no truth. But that's an oxymoron.

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​Socrates said thousands of years ago, "All I know is that I know nothing." But that's an oxymoron as well. Moreover, although Socrates was smart, he was severely limited by the biases of his time and the dearth of scientific information available. He didn't understand the structure or mechanics of the universe, the laws governing matter, or the anatomy of a human, cell, or atom. Such knowledge, as will be applied in this book, tames many abstract philosophical ideas— including Socrates’ nihilism—by leashing them to reality.

Today, conventional wisdom is that truth can only be found in science. However, since science is done by people, our original problem of relying on others with their foibles is not solved.

For a time, in my early science and medical career, I too thought science with its controlled, double-blinded cross over studies was the path to truth. But then I learned that I could farm out a study I wanted a particular result from to a university and get the result I wanted. Fraud and error abound in commerce-driven science and its peer-reviewed (thought-policed) literature.

That's the reason millions of people are maimed, suffer, and die at the hands of scientifically proven modern medicine (today's number one killer). Medical propaganda backed by sober science leads the public to believe they are living longer due to medical interventions. But increased average life span is because of decreased infant mortality due to modern utilities and food distribution. Plumbers and truck drivers deserve more credit than doctors. The mantra that modern medical science stopped the great plagues and is the cure for every new disease that pops up is also a myth.

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​Millions of people and their pets suffer and die due to scientifically proven and government approved foods and official scientifically backed dietary advice. Scientifically proven agriculture poisons the land and its crops. Every scientifically justified modern intrusion on the natural order threatens life on the planet.

Just like attorneys can marshal expert witnesses to prop up any claim, so can experts be found to prop up any hypothesis. Sure, we could fill our time trying to peruse study designs and bury ourselves in statistical analyses carefully. But it would be impossible to sort through the 2.5 million new scientific papers each year. This is not to mention the 50 million articles in the archives dating back to 1665. Real truth, the truth we must seek, does not change on the first of each month when all the thousands of new journals come out.

If we desire health, it will only come from self-responsibility and finding truths about proper living. If we want truth about the Big Questions of existence, they too must come from within our own capabilities. Truth reveals itself to us by using what I call the SOLVER principles: Self-responsibility, Open-mindedness, Long view thinking, Virtuous intent, Evidence, and Reason. Experts may provide clues, but they are not the source of conclusions about truth. We, individually, are.

There exists today a Flat Earth Society. Some people are convinced that the sun and moon are only about 32 feet in diameter and the stars are about 2000 miles high on a dome that encloses our planet. A selection of evidence, not the full array, can make such conclusions perfectly reasonable. (Internet search: proof the earth is flat, and then, proof the earth is round)

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​Throughout time, human truths are created and endure because they enable power. Today money is power and whatever creates profit and secures careers becomes truth. With "truths" coming from every which way, contradicting one another, and with no financial disclaimers attached, little wonder the average person doubts that there is any such thing as real truth.

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​In the end, all the opinions and motives surrounding human-made truths can be set aside by the fact that the world is clearly made of real truths independent of opinion. Real truth is always there, waiting to be discovered and obeyed. It doesn’t go away just because we deny it or it threatens our secure and comforting opinions.

Nature's laws are objective truths that underlie our reality. They aren't mere human opinions, but are empirical, verifiable, consistent, and supported by reason, experience, and the full array of evidence. They are true in relation to everyone, everything, and at all time. Thus the natural world and its laws, the observable workable reality that led to toasters and Lear jets, have to be the template by which all pretenders must be measured. That's the key we will use to find truthful answers to the Big Questions.

This obvious starting point of beginning with the known truths of natural laws is ignored. In part, that's because having truth be malleable permits and justifies any behavior. It's also because the door of our mind is locked from the inside. To open it and access truth (reality) requires that the unearned belief, opinion, and faith scales fall from our eyes. If we go about life presuming that our unexamined opinions are true, we lock ourselves in our own heads with blindness that precludes truth even if it stares us in the face.

The solution is to change our objective from protecting prior belief, to openly searching and following the facts. We have a duty to truth, not belief in belief. As John Hogue encouraged, "We must disturb the sleepy givens."

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​Truth, real truth, is like a train that moves along taking the precise route mandated by the tracks. We, the passengers in this train, may argue and debate about whether the train is moving, its speed, mechanics, where it will go next, whether it exists, pray for divine intervention to make it turn a different way, ignore its movement, or step out onto the ground to our peril. But the truth train moves along inexorably fixed on its course and oblivious to what we may conjure up to believe about it.

So climb aboard. Leave behind the baggage of preconceived destinations. Let's see where the truth rails of natural law, evidence, intuition, reason, conscience, and experience take us.

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Introduction1. Rules for Finding Truth2. Truth Is Real and Accessible3. Origin Choices4. The Laws of Thermodynamics5. The Law of Information6. The Law of Impossibility7. The Law of Biogenesis8. The Laws of Chemistry9. The Law of Time10. Fossil Problems11. Have Humans Evolved?12. Are We Selected Mutants?13. Favorite Evolutionist Proofs14. Why Evolution Is Believed15. Free Will Proves Creation16. Design17. Biological Machines18. Nuts, Bolts, Gears, and Rotors Prove Intelligent Design19. Humans Defy Evolution20. The Anthropic Universe21. Evolution’s Impact22. Putting Religion on the Table23. How Religion Begins and Develops24. Religions Cross Pollinate25. Gods Writing Books26. Questionable Foundations of Christianity27. How Best to Measure Holy Books28. The Ultimate Holy Book Test29. Religion Unleashed30. End(s) of the World31. Defending Holy Books32. Faith33. The Source of Goodness34. Matter is an Illusion35. Weird Things Disprove Materialism36. Even Weirder Things37. Creature Testimony38. Personal Weirdness39. Proving Weird Things40. Skeptics and Debunkers41. Free Will Proves We Are Other42. Mind Outside Matter43. Death is a Return44. Life After Death45. Why There is Suffering46. The Creator47. Thinking’s Destination$1 Million Reward

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